Jun 8

Jun 8 Bluesfest 2023

Chicago, Chicago Tourism, Festivals, Musicians, Performance, Things to Do in Chicago

[Note: Regrettably due to a death in the family, I was only able to attend tonight’s show]

Is Chicago the capital of the Blues? The question certainly can start a heated argument. Mississippi certainly can lay claim to that title, but following the Great Migration, Chicago clearly became the center, if not the birthplace of the electric blues. Makes perfect sense. Chicago’s steel and manufacturing plants, rail lines, and ever expanding metropolis represented loud, high energy shaped shaped an urban environment. The music that provided workers a respite from the laborious tasks necessary to eke out a living mimicked its surrounding while allowing spirits to soar above the often harsh realities that those surrounding produced.

One thing is for sure: This weekend, Chicago is the undisputed place to be if you love the Blues. The City is hosting the annual four-day festival celebrating all types of Blues.

Chicago’s festival is the undisputed champion, holding the heavyweight crown as the largest free Blues festival in the world. Over today and the next three, some 180,000 people are expected to stream into Millennium Park to celebrate the Blues, which is featured on three stages.

To kick the four-day festival off, the organizers scheduled three sets of music on the stage of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. Sometimes Thursday night’s crowd is thin, but not tonight. As the evening progressed, the semi-circle of red seats surrounding the stage was fairy full. When I took a walk at dusk, I saw a lot of Blues fans picnicking on the Great Lawn.

WDCB DJ and longtime Blues stalwart Tom Marker did the honors, serving as the Master of Ceremonies. Marker always sets the right tone. His first task was introducing Wayne Baker Brooks, the son of the great Lonnie Brooks, who passed in 2017, leaving Wayne and his other son, Ronnie Brooks, to carry on Lonnie’s legacy and the family business.

For my money, Wayne Baker Brooks, played an adequate set, but it was clearly the evening’s low point. He undoubtedly is a skilled player and capable singer, but he exemplifies the turn that Blues took beginning in the Seventies, one that took the music in the wrong direction.

People like Paul Butterfield, Michael Bloomfield, and Corky Siegel spent time in Chicago’s Blues bars in the Sixties. They channeled the electric vibe that they heard in a positive direction, making the Blues more accessible to a the mainstream rock audience. But as time went on, rock’s excesses infected the Blues. It got louder, harder, and flashier, but more homogenized. Nuance was replaced by a jackhammer beat and all too lengthy and excessive guitar solos. To my ears, Brooks has fallen into that trap.

Fortunately, others haven’t. One who clearly hasn’t is 89-year old Bobby Rush, who has been playing the Blues since 1951, when he started out on the Chitlin’ Circuit. Playing both harmonica and guitar, Rush has since traveled the world several times over, but remains a Chicago and Mississippi staple.

Rather than volume, Rush relies on nuance, sometimes bawdy stories and stage patter, but also a reverence for God, all of which has resulted in a deep connection between Rush and his adoring audiences. That was certainly the case tonight, when he asked, “How can I be in a gospel show like this when I sing the devil’s music?”

He opened with a great acoustic set, revealing that he is in love with a fat woman because she keeps him warm. He also lamented the woman who left him for the garbage man. He has already referred to two women; does that make him a two-timer?

At another point, he rode the carnival rhythms, whirling organ, and bass lines laid down by the crew of musicians standing behind him. Eventually, he put the guitar down, opting for Blues harp, which he simply devoured. The audience responded accordingly.

For my money, he could have played another hour, but he left the stage, so the Blind Boys of Alabama could work their gospel magic. The group traces its roots back to the last Thirties, with the lineup updated continuously as older members either retire or pass. As expected, the group worked a version of Amazing Grace into their set, along with other familiar gospel numbers.

As I looked out on the audience, I realized many were primed for the occasion, joining in with the Boys from Alabama as if everyone was attending a Sunday morning church service. Eventually, Rush returned to the stage, this time in a flashy purple jacket with white embroidery. He joined the Blind Boys of Alabama. My notes show that they sang a song entitled, “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” which melded Saturday night good times with Sunday morning sacred. As the decades have proven, there is anything but a large void separating the Blues from Gospel.

After a brief pause in the music, Rico McFarland opened the centennial tribute to the great Albert King. Like many others, I was first exposed to King when Stax Records released Live Wire/ Blues Power, which was a live recording from a 1968 show at the Fillmore West. King, playing his trademark Gibson Flying V guitar, is known for sustaining notes, giving him the opportunity to bend them, making them wail out—sometimes in pain, others in joy. He is the antithesis of what happened to the Blues when the rock and rollers got a hold of it in the Seventies. Many were influenced by King, but missed the point, relying on speed and volume rather than harmonics, reverb, and tremolo.

McFarland and the others managed to avoid ear-splitting volume, retaining the emphasis on fluid lines. In other words, the King acolytes did him justice. Also joining the festivities were Donald Kinsey, Larry McCray, and Carl Weathersby.

Of the four, Kinsey offered the most notable performance of the evening—more for his humanity than the music he played. He came on stage relying on assistance from someone while attached to an oxygen tank, clearly ailing. At times, I wondered whether he would make it through the set, particularly as he grimaced in seeming discomfort. Others also took note.

Yet, this longtime warrior was doing what he loves doing. It is what he has done all his life, and that is what he continues to do as he exhibits his will to power. He displayed guts and determination, overcoming obstacles so that those who have loved his music for decades could enjoy it once again tonight. What great spirit. He exemplified the Blues tonight in its best sense.

And so Day 1 came to an end.

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